No-tilling at the 1,010-acre Hanke farm in Wahoo, Neb., is a true family affair. While Gary Hanke is planting corn, his wife, Nancy, is drilling soybeans, and son, Mitch, is transporting equipment and also helping drill soybeans.

After experimenting with no-till for 15 years, the Hankes have time management down to a science. However, the road to increased efficiency was paved with some unique challenges.

“We first started dabbling with no-till in 1983,” Gary recalls. “We worked with several chem­ical companies no-tilling our soybeans into corn stubble using a regular planter. Of course, back then the chemical costs were extremely high...about $50 an acre if you no-tilled without participating in one of the manufacturer’s programs.”

The Hanke’ biggest obstacle was no-tilling into heavy clay soils, especially no-till corn. “This is still a struggle,” Gary admits. “We yield check everything we harvest. Conventional-till corn consistently yielded more. We’ve discovered that making one pass with the field cultivator raises yields 7 to 9 bushels.”

They’ve found it’s best to field cultivate 12 hours ahead of planting to dry the top layer of soil when conditions are wet.

Major Improvements

The addition of a seed monitor to their Case IH 5400 drill and the switch to brush augers on gravity boxes are the biggest improvements the Hankes made to their no-till operation.

“We’re pretty much a low-budget operation,” says Gary. “There’s just the three of us, and my brother-in-law and dad help with combining. It all boils down to efficiency and saving the…